Some days Elias isn’t in as foul a mood and has been known to approach people sitting outside on the front porch and strike up a conversation. At first the unsuspecting visitors believe the man to be alive and well. But when the man suddenly disappears, leaving behind no trace that he had been there at all, they become frightfully aware that they were just in the company of the long-dead Elias.
A girl named Auriel was hanging out in Bower Ponds late one night with her best friend. The girls had heard the ghost stories from Cronquist House and wanted to see for themselves if there was any truth to them. Not yet convinced that the house was actually haunted, they were completely shocked (and a little frightened) when they looked up at the turret window and saw the ghost of Elias staring down at them disapprovingly.
Based on all of the evidence, it appears that Elias just wants to be left alone in the house he never wanted to leave. But as the Red Deer Cultural Heritage Society continues to operate out of the building, hosting high tea and giving historical tours, that’s one wish he won’t be granted anytime soon.
THEY FEED ON FEAR
St. Vincent, Alberta
It was 3:30 a.m. and Margo Lagasse heard the footsteps on the roof again. The phantom sound had woken her every night for a week. Something needed to be done.
Margo and her sons had just moved into the new home they had had built on a bluff overlooking St. Vincent Lake, surrounded by trees and solitude. There wasn’t a neighbour within sight and the house was anything but conventional. A man had owed the Lagasse family a great deal of money but was unable to repay his debt. What he did have was a large stash of concrete blocks, and Margo decided to accept them instead of money. She used them to build a castle in the woods. It didn’t take the family long to realize something was amiss in their new home.
Like clockwork, Margo woke up every night at the same time to the sound of loud footsteps above her head. The disturbance had begun earlier in the week. At first she had assumed it was one of her sons walking around — their rooms were above hers. But when she checked, she had found them asleep in their beds. The footsteps weren’t coming from within the house. They were coming from the roof.
Nearing her wits’ end, Margo finally built up the courage to climb out onto the roof to investigate. There was no one there. The footsteps returned the next night and the next and the next, until Margo lost her cool and yelled at whoever was out there, commanding him to stop. Whatever was out there quit walking on the roof at night, but it didn’t go away for good.
A few nights later her sons had some friends over. As they hung out listening to music, they heard an unseen presence come down the stairs, the entire staircase shaking with each hollow-sounding footfall. The spirit had entered the house.
The boys bolted for the safety of one of their bedrooms and locked themselves in. They were unable to calm down, however, since they could hear many voices talking in the room beside them, despite the fact that they were the only people in the house.
Some time later, one of the boys had his first sighting of a ghost. He was sitting on a couch near the base of the staircase when he saw a blond woman wearing a long dress float down the steps and beckon at him to follow her. Needless to say, he didn’t.
Maybe it was this woman who attacked Tim Landru, a local handyman. Tim helped Margo with the castle’s upkeep. One day as he was walking upstairs, a hand reached out and grabbed the back of his knee. Terrified, he raced up the rest of the stairs, only to find there was no one behind him when he reached the top — no one visible, that is.
As haunted as the castle was, the woods that surround it were even scarier. Although no one had ever seen what lurked in the bushes, everyone knew it was big. Both Margo and Tim heard something charging at them through the trees, something that sounded as large as a moose. But then, just when it seemed like the attacker was going to break through the trees and trample them to death, it disappeared.
One day, determined not to be afraid of something he couldn’t see, Tim stood up to the noise. The sound didn’t rush at him. That’s when he and Margo started to believe that the ghosts fed on fear, and that standing up to them made them go away.
At least for a short while. Then they came back.
As more houses were built near Margo’s home, more people became acquainted with the strange goings-on within. One evening, Margo heard guitar music coming from upstairs, so she ran outside and told her neighbours. A few people approached the house and heard the same music, but all refused to enter. No one wanted to come face to face with the phantom musician. That doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the music the ghost played. On one occasion, neighbours reported to Margo that they’d heard organ music coming from the house while she was away. It was absolutely lovely, they reported. No one had been in the house, and there had never been an organ in it either.
A less desirable result of living with ghosts was the foul odour — the smell of burning flesh — that often rose out of nowhere. It would seep into bread if loaves were left out for more than an hour, making them inedible. Margo’s mother refused to return to the house because of the stench. It didn’t go away until Margo offered a young priest to use her home for a retreat. He didn’t say whether or not he had performed an exorcism while he’d stayed there, but he did make a point of letting Margo know that he had performed many exorcisms in the past.
Even if the priest did perform an exorcism, it only got rid of the awful smell, not the ghosts. One night, before bed, Margo wrote a note to the spirits and left it on a table beneath a lamp. The next morning she awoke to discover something had shattered the lampshade.
And then one night, Margo finally saw one of the ghosts herself. She woke up suddenly and saw a familiar-looking man with a moustache standing beside her bed, staring at her in silence. He soon disappeared, but he returned a few more nights until Margo realized why he looked familiar. He was a local man who had died a short while before, and Margo knew his mother.
“What do you want?” Margo asked.
“Go to my mother,” the dead man said, “and tell her I’m happy where I am.”
At first Margo didn’t go visit his mother, who wasn’t a very nice person. But after the man interrupted her sleep a few more times, Margo decided she wouldn’t get any rest until she carried out the ghost’s bidding. The next day she travelled to the nearby town of St. Paul and knocked on the old woman’s door. As soon as the woman opened the door, Margo passed along the message and left without waiting a moment longer.
That night the man appeared one final time. He gave Margo a warm smile and then vanished in a cloud of smoke, never to return.
In the years since, Margo has researched the history of the land her castle was built on but hasn’t uncovered anything that explains why it might be haunted. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the property and everything to do with the style of home she built. After all, every castle, even one built with cinder blocks, needs a ghost.
THE OTHER SIDE
Burnaby, British Columbia
Chris Dixon was two years old the day he told his parents that he had two new friends. Their names, the boy said, were Kukin and Frindon, and they had appeared in his room in the middle of the night.
Dave and Patricia, Chris’s parents, knew that Kukin and Frindon were imaginary. Inventing playmates, especially among preschool children, is common, nothing to fear or be concerned about. But as the days went on and Chris told them more about his two new nighttime friends, Dave and Patricia began to grow concerned. Soon their concerns turned into full-fledged fear.
They had moved into their small, two-bedroom bungalow in a northern suburb of Burnaby before Chris was born. The house was very old, and in the 1930s a large family with fourteen children had lived there, all crammed in together. The Dixons had looked forward to one day raising children of their own there.
Though the Dixons were happy in their bungalow, the second bedroom gave them a bad vibe that they couldn’t quite explain. The room was noticeably chill
ier than the rest of the house and they felt as though they were being watched in there — as if something was lurking in the closet, hiding under the bed or peering out of the shadows. Thanks in part to this unsettling feeling, Patricia would often wake her husband in the middle of the night, certain that someone must have broken into their house. Time after time, Dave would dutifully investigate his wife’s concerns, and time after time, he would find the house to be completely empty.
Chris slept in a crib in his parents’ bedroom until he was two, at which point it was decided that he was old enough to move into the second bedroom and sleep on his own. But he wouldn’t actually be sleeping on his own.
Kukin and Frindon visited three or four nights a week. At first it seemed innocent enough, but that quickly changed as Chris revealed more details about his friends’ behaviour.
The imaginary friends refused to appear while Dave and Patricia were still awake. They waited for everyone in the house to be asleep and then they woke Chris. His father asked Chris how they appeared each night.
“They walk through the wall,” Chris said.
Dave asked where the two friends came from.
“The other side,” Chris said.
“The other side of what?”
“The river,” the boy answered.
Dave and Patricia shared a concerned look. They didn’t live anywhere near a river. There was no way he would have made up something like that. As alarming as that was, it couldn’t hold a candle to the tidbit Chris shared with his parents next. He told them that every night Kukin and Frindon asked Chris to go with them, through the wall and over the river to the other side.
Fearing that Chris’s life was in danger, Dave and Patricia warned their son to never, ever go anywhere with Kukin and Frindon.
The two friends continued to visit most nights. They persisted in trying to get Chris to pass over to the other side. Chris obeyed his parents and refused to go anywhere with Kukin and Frindon. They only finally left the poor boy alone when he was three years old and the Dixons moved to a new house.
Early in the morning after their first night in the new home, Dave and Patricia asked Chris what Kukin and Frindon thought of his new bedroom.
“They had to stay at the old house,” the boy said. “They couldn’t leave.”
The Dixons had seen the last of Kukin and Frindon, but Kukin and Frindon hadn’t seen the last of the old, two-bedroom bungalow. Two young men moved in after the Dixons, but they didn’t stay long.
The man who moved into Chris’s old room could never get a decent night’s sleep. Everything seemed normal when he went to bed, but he’d wake up in the middle of the night with the feeling that something was watching him. This happened every night until the man couldn’t take it anymore. Instead he began sleeping on a recliner in the living room. That wasn’t a permanent solution, however. One night, after a few nights of undisturbed sleep, he awoke sometime after midnight. From where he lay in the recliner he could see into the darkness of his bedroom. Standing within it, staring out at him, were two shadowy figures the size of young boys. Thinking that a couple of kids had snuck into the house through an unlocked window, he leapt from the recliner and ran into the bedroom, but it was empty. The two boys had disappeared, and there were no signs of any intrusion.
The two men moved out of the bungalow the very next day.
When the Dixons first heard this they weren’t surprised. They’d been driven out of the bungalow themselves, although not quite as quickly as the two men. And although they can’t prove it, Dave and Patricia are certain that Kukin and Frindon still haunt the Burnaby house. After all, the two ghosts might be from the other side, but they can never leave.
Read the whole chilling series.
Haunted Canada: True Ghost Stories
By Pat Hancock
ISBN 978-0-7791-1410-8
Paperback, 112 pages
A collection of chilling true ghost stories, from all across Canada, to send shivers down your spine: from poltergeists who terrorize hunters in a remote cabin, to a man who gets frightened to death in a graveyard.
Prepare yourself to be haunted!
Haunted Canada 2: True Tales of Terror
By Pat Hancock
ISBN 978-0-439-96122-6
Paperback, 120 pages
These true tales of terror from all parts of Canada will chill you to the bone. Strange fires break out, serpents rise from the waves, and giant beasts lumber through the trees. Ghostly forms drift by and eerie discs lower silently from the sky.
Prepare yourself to be haunted!
Haunted Canada 3: More True Ghost Stories
By Pat Hancock
ISBN 978-0-439-93777-1
Paperback, 128 pages
Ready for more true ghost stories? Somewhere in Canada, a strange light glows near the water, a chain rattles in an abandoned cell, and footsteps scurry across an empty room. Somewhere a headless woman wanders the streets, a blood-covered face appears in a mirror, and the eyes of a statue flutter open.
Prepare yourself to be haunted!
Haunted Canada 4: More True Tales of Terror
By Joel A. Sutherland
ISBN 978-1-4431-2893-3
Paperback, 128 pages
eBook ISBN 978-1-4431-3377-7
These chilling true tales of terror from across Canada will have you sleeping with the lights on. A phantom dog leaps out from the darkness of an abandoned hospital, red eyes glow through a misty graveyard and unseen hands push, grab and trip visitors to a museum.
Prepare yourself to be haunted!
Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories
By Joel A. Sutherland
ISBN 978-1-4431-3929-8
Paperback, 128 pages
eBook ISBN 978-1-4431-3930-4
These terrifying true tales from across Canada will make your blood run cold. Televisions and radios turn on and off on their own at a remote inn, disembodied legs descend the elegant staircase of a castle home and a phantom ship emerges from the fog off the coast of Newfoundland.
Prepare yourself to be haunted!
Haunted Canada 6: More Terrifying True Stories
By Joel A. Sutherland
ISBN 978-1-4431-4878-8
Paperback, 128 pages
eBook ISBN 978-1-4431-4879-5
These terrifying true stories from across Canada will keep you up at night. A supernatural sea hag haunts an eerie marsh, a used book conjures up a ghostly figure, phantom hands terrorize children in a school playground … Prepare to be haunted!
Haunted Canada 7: Chilling True Tales
By Joel A. Sutherland
ISBN 978-1-4431-4881-8
Paperback, 128 pages
eBook ISBN 978-1-4431-4882-5
These chilling true tales from across Canada will haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page. A ghostly woman roams a remote island in search of her missing finger, a haunted house terrorizes its occupants but won’t let them go and a river wraith causes the untimely death of all who set eyes on it. Prepare to be haunted.
Haunted Canada 8: More Chilling True Tales
By Joel A. Sutherland
ISBN 978-1-4431-4883-2
Paperback, 128 pages
eBook ISBN 978-1-4431-4888-7
These chilling true tales from across Canada will keep you up at night. A headless apparition haunts the railway tracks in Woodridge, Manitoba. In Victoria, British Columbia, a ghostly spirit silently screams in Beacon Hill Park. The first general manager of a social club appears to diners in the very spot where he died in Halifax, Nova Scotia … Prepare to be haunted!
The Unexplained: A Haunted Canada Book
Edited by Janet Lunn
ISBN 978-0-545-99314-2
Paperback, 160 pages
Fifteen shivery stories, including tales by some of Canada’s top writers:
* Joyce Barkhouse
* Hazel Boswell
* Karleen Bradford
* Jean Brien
* Brian Doyle
* Monica Hughes
* Jean Little
* Janet Lunn
* Andrew MacFarlane
* L. M. Montgomery
* Kit Pearson
* Ken Roberts
* James F. Robinson
* Sharon Siamon
* Carole Spray
Haunted Canada: Ghost Stories
By Pat Hancock and Allan Gould
ISBN 978-1-4431-2894-0
Paperback, 176 pages
eBook ISBN 978-1-4431-3307-4
A ghoulish face in the window … A throaty whisper … A boy possessed … The thrills and chills of these fifteen haunting stories will make your hairs stand on end. Think you’re ready? Then turn down the lights, lock the door and prepare to be spooked!
For Haunted Canada bonus material, visit www.scholastic.ca/hauntedcanada.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joel A. Sutherland is an author and librarian. He is the author of several books in the Haunted Canada series, as well as Be a Writing Superstar, Summer’s End and Haunted, a series of middle-grade horror novels. His short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, alongside the likes of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. He has been a juror for the John Spray Mystery Award and the Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy.
He appeared as “The Barbarian Librarian” on the Canadian edition of the hit television show Wipeout, making it all the way to the third round and proving that librarians can be just as tough and crazy as anyone else.
Joel lives with his family in southeastern Ontario, where he is always on the lookout for ghosts.
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